Smoky Corn Chowder + Vegan Bowl Attack

Today I’m sharing the recipe for Smoky Corn Chowder from the new cookbook by Jackie Sobon called Vegan Bowl Attack. Get the recipe below and enter to win a copy for yourself.

Bowls are the hugs of pottery. There’s something that’s just so cozy about food served in a big, enveloping bowl. It’s soup when you’re sick. It’s popcorn while you’re watching reruns of 30 Rock. It’s mashed potatoes and gravy when only carbs will do.

In recent years, there’s been a bowl trend in the food world. In places like Portland, whole restaurants are based on it. To make a basic bowl, you put in a layer of grains, a protein of some sort (like chickpeas or tofu), a vegetable, and a sauce. Voila, you have a meal.

Jackie Sobon has put everything you’ve ever needed to know about bowls into one stellar cookbook. Jackie is a very cool, funny human being and the blogger behind the popular Vegan Yack Attack. Her cookbook is aptly named Vegan Bowl Attack.

It’s a hardcover beauty that includes over 100 recipes. Because of her handiwork, you can feast on bowls from the morning (breakfast burrito bowls and even mini-cinni rolls!) – all the way through dessert. (Where have you been all my life, doughnut sundae?)

I had a chance to make a few recipes from Vegan Bowl Attack:

Herbed tofu tomato salad

The tomatoes have reached the point in the year, where I have to eat at least one a day. There’s no way around it. They are too, too good – brimming with flavor and popping with juicy sweetness. So Jackie’s herbed tofu tomato salad called to me right away.

The tomatoes are laid on a bed of arugula along with marinated tofu. I am not a big arugula fan, and so I swapped it out for spinach instead. The tofu is a breeze to prepare, as you just have to make the marinade and then let it soak for several hours. Finally, after all of the ingredients come together, the salad is finished with a squeeze of lemon. It’s a beautifully bright summer salad that was vaguely reminiscent of a caprese with herbed tofu instead of mozzarella. I served it with a slice of grilled garlic bread.

Strawberry Cucumber Gazpacho

On a muggy August day, I made this cold soup for dinner along with a spread of nibbles. There are times when it’s simply too hot to turn on the oven, and a cool refreshing soup that only requires a blender is just the ticket. This savory sweet gazpacho is made with cucumbers, strawberries, tomatoes, bell peppers, and onion, along with a splash of balsamic vinegar and lemon juice.

Although it was lovely as a starter, I actually liked it even better the next day when I polished off the leftovers as a savory smoothie. Fruit smoothies are often a little too mouth puckering for me, and this one had a nice bite that’s often missing. (In this case, I drank it out of a glass and not a bowl. Don’t tell Jackie!)

Smoky Corn Chowder

Corn on the cob is overflowing at the farmers market, and so why not squeeze as much of it as I can into a steamy bowl of corn chowder? No dairy-based cream here, of course. This soup gets its creaminess from the corn itself, along with a smidge of nutritional yeast flakes and non-dairy milk. I was a big fan of this filling, smoky chowder. Plus, it gave David and I a chance to work on our Boston accents.

“We’re going to have chowder.”

“Chowda?”

“Corn chowda!”

Spoiler alert: Our Boston accents are still awful. Matt Damon doesn’t have to worry that I am going to start stealing parts out from under him. I’m sure he’ll sleep easy tonight.

Changes I made to the soup: The liquid smoke I use is on the strong side. So I reduced the amount by half (1/2 teaspoon instead of a full teaspoon). In the recipe, the chowder is supposed to be served in a bread bowl. However, I bought a baguette instead, and served it on the side.

Jackie and Vegan Bowl Attack’s publisher, Fair Winds Press, have kindly allowed me share the corn chowder recipe with you today. (So now you can work on your Boston accent too. Maybe you’ll have better luck than we did. That would be wicked pissa!) They are also giving away one copy of Vegan Bowl Attack to readers of Cadry’s Kitchen. The giveaway is open to readers in the U.S. and Canada only. Good luck! (Update: giveaway has ended!)

Chowders are among the most comforting foods out there, and corn chowders in particular have always had a special place in my heart. I also am a huge fan of carbs, so this is a recipe consisting of smoky, creamy carbs inside a bowl made of toasty carbs. Luckily, for both you and me, this recipe is not made with heavy cream and instead takes advantage of the inherent starchiness of corn to thicken it.

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Ingredients

1 teaspoon sunflower oil

2 shallots, diced

1 clove of garlic, minced

4 cups (616 g) fresh corn kernels (or thawed frozen corn)

¼ cup (15 g) nutritional yeast

1 tablespoon (15 ml) liquid aminos

1 teaspoon liquid smoke

¾ teaspoon smoked paprika, plus more for garnish

½ teaspoon onion powder

1½ cups (355 ml) vegetable broth

1 cup (235 ml) unsweetened, nut-free nondairy milk

2 cups (60 g) packed baby spinach

2 tablespoons (5 g) chiffonade-cut fresh basil, plus more for garnish

4 sourdough bread bowls (8 ounces, or 225 g, each)

½ teaspoon salt, or to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

In a large pot over medium heat, heat the sunflower oil. Add the shallots and garlic to the pot and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the corn kernels, nutritional yeast, liquid aminos, liquid smoke, smoked paprika, and onion powder to the pot and stir until combined.

Add the vegetable broth and nondairy milk to the corn mixture and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and carefully use an immersion blender to purée about half of the corn kernels (so it remains slightly chunky).

Cover the pot, bring the soup to a simmer, and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Fold the spinach and basil into the soup and cook for another 5 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C, or gas mark 2). Cut the tops out of the bread bowl loaves and cut the bread out of the center, leaving a roughly 1 inch (2.5 cm)-thick wall on all sides. Toast the loaves until lightly golden.

Season the soup with salt and pepper to taste and divide it among the bread bowls. Garnish with a sprinkle of smoked paprika and chiffonade-cut basil and serve immediately.

Cuisine: Vegan |Recipe Type: Soup

Notes

If you do not have an immersion blender, you can transfer half of the soup to a blender in small batches and carefully purée it with a towel over the top instead of the lid (or else you run the risk of it exploding everywhere).

Oh, wow! How strange for this time of year. Our grocery stores actually ran out of corn and had to truck it in from Ohio, which is weird since Iowa is known for corn. (I guess it's okay since most people seem to think Iowa and Ohio are the same place anyway.) ;) Apparently, there was more demand than supply. I hope you have better luck this weekend!

The Corn Chowder, I'm a big Chowder Head, lol, no seriously before I went Vegan 2+ decades now, I used to love to eat both New England and Manhattan, chowders, not eat the Region and City that would make me sound like Godzilla or something lol, I am going to have to try the corn chowder recipe.
Thanks